


Nowhere to Run

by TheRisu



Category: Mother 3
Genre: Fan Characters, Gen, Origin Story, Side Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 09:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5781250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRisu/pseuds/TheRisu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We already saw what one of the twins went through, but what about the other? What happened up there, on the Pig King's cloud, during Lucas' journey? Ladies and gentlemen, the Great Deeds of the Pigmask Commander.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

In his dream, there was a field. A yellow field.

The wind was whistling. The sunlight was too bright for his eyes. He was squinting. Trying to guide himself. Rubbing his head because, even after a while, it kept hurting from time to time.

Maybe he had fallen down, and he couldn’t recall. He wasn’t sure. He was trying, but there was nothing.

Just blank.

Blank slate.

Or rather, yellow…?

After a couple of hesitant steps forward, he eventually realized that the more he would advance, the more tall and thick the foliage would become. Dozens and dozens of big flowers, caressing him as he kept making his way through. Even though he didn’t even know where he was supposed to go. Hell, he still wasn’t even sure of where he was or what was happening.

The field seemed to be endless for a moment, because the flowers were identical and the path would go on and on…

Until something finally made him stop.

It was an edge. Like the edge of a cliff. It was then that he discovered that there wasn’t any ground. He was literally standing on what appeared to be a cloud of yellow flowers.

Now he could see a clear blue sky that marked the end of that cloud, and that wasn’t all. There was someone standing on the edge, not too far from him.

He rubbed his eyes.

That was perhaps the strangest thing he had seen so far.

It was… _himself_.

…

Right?

That swirly hair and striped shirt were his. That was himself standing on the edge. But that was just ridiculous since he was right there. What exactly was he looking at?

Yet, he couldn’t see the figure’s face. It was facing the sky.

He tried to approach, but then his entire body started to hurt, and walking became horribly painful. He tried to call it, but either it couldn’t hear him or he couldn’t make any sound.

He tried reaching out… and that was the last thing he did before collapsing, as everything was hurting too much to keep moving.

And then the figure faded away.

And so did the yellow field.

And the sky.

But the pain…

The pain stayed.


	2. TRUE Prologue

No average human would have survived that fall.

That was probably the thing that had been said the most through the laboratory hallways for the last five hours.

Or ten hours.

Or twenty hours.

It was hard to tell.

Either way, it had been repeated a lot. And indeed, no average human would have survived such fall. This was a special human. A _super human_. The scientists were in awe.

The boy arrived during an agitated night, in which a lot of reconstructions were still in progress, but had to be put on hold. As soon as the laboratory personnel saw that one highly important superior storming in, and already vociferating about the discovery, they knew this was a serious matter.

They didn’t even wait until the next day. The safety and stability of the boy was the top priority, as the superior emphasized, all while vehemently throwing away a banana peel and making an unfortunate bypasser slip.

The head scientists were called right away. There was no time to lose.

Only one casualty had been reported so far. A woman, near the area known as Sunshine Forest. Apparently, this boy’s injuries had been a result from their most recent creation’s attack as well.

The Mecha-Drago was a relentless beast, fueled by rage and agony. The fact that such a young child hadn’t only endured the attack but also the deadly height of the cliff from which he had fallen down was more than impressive.

And that was why he was there that night. That was why they had to take him in, to keep him.

He was a chosen one.

Those had been the superior’s words. Chosen one. The one who could change a terrible fate by challenging and defeating the forces of evil.

One would wonder why would this be so significant when there were no forces of evil to take care of. They were at the top of the world, or at least what remained of it. The revolution had just begun, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. And now this miraculous boy…

He was most likely destined to battle against a hardship that was yet to come, that was why he had been so nicely dropped on their doorstep.

It was a good sign. A blessing. A bringer of victory. The superior just _knew_.

He couldn’t wait for the king to know about this.


	3. Not Very Courteous Call

When he woke up, he was no longer in pain. Although he wasn’t really awake. It was like just bits of his brain were.

He tried to open his eyes. He couldn’t.

He tried to move his limbs. He couldn’t either.

The entirety of his body seemed to be numb, excepting a small fragment of consciousness. And even then, he was feeling a little dizzy.

So no. On second thought, this was nothing like waking up.

“How long has it been?”

A sudden voice. That would have startled him if he wasn’t in that pitiful, motionless state.

“Twelve hours.”

Another voice. They were close. Very close. Perhaps next to him.

“And he still hasn’t shown any vital signs?”

“There are vital signs, he’s just in… some sort of coma right now.”

“So…? Is he going to be okay or not?”

“It’s hard to explain. He was in a surprisingly stable condition when they brought him, but then… the pulse rate kept becoming slower and slower… but we managed to fix it before it stopped for good.”

“Fix it…”

“The monitor indicates that it has gone back to normal, so he should be fine. I’d say this was caused by an overdose of anaesthetics. We just will have to wait for a little longer.”

“Then he _is_ going to be okay. How was it hard to explain?”

“For now. He’s okay for now. I can’t assure anything for the future.”

“Hm…”

Then, silence.

He could only wonder who those people were. From what he was gathering from this conversation, he seemed to be recovering from a fatal accident, or at least that was what it sounded like. Maybe this was a hospital. Maybe this was a doctor and a nurse. It made sense to him. He wished he could let them know he was awake and well.

He wished he could… ask where his… family was…?

Because his family was probably around, wanting to see him…

That if he… had one…?

Did he even have… one…?

Then his head started to hurt again. No. He would find out later. Enough of that. No more wondering.

Trying to remember things seemed to hurt a lot. Maybe he had hit his head hard.

Then the nurse spoke again.

“Doctor Andonuts…”

“Yes?”

“What do you think… his purpose might be?”

“Good grief, if I know… Mister Fassad just said he was valuable, and I think I can understand why… in fact, shouldn’t you be able to _sense_ that too?”

Then the two fell silent again. But for a shorter while. It seemed to be an uneasy silence.

“Then it’s true…”

Pause.

“When they said chosen one it wasn’t just an exaggeration…”

“This would be a good addition to the army, I suppose. That might be what they’re up to.”

“Are you serious? It’s just a child!”

“That’s right. A child. A child like the one who defeated the Universal Cosmic Destroyer.”

“… With an addition like this, he is going to take over the Nowhere Islands without a doubt.”

A sad sigh.

“Precisely.”

Chosen one? Army? Universal Cosmic Destroyer? Nowhere Islands?

What the hell did all of that mean? The only thing he could understand clearly was that he was important. Hopefully, they would tell him everything in detail after waking up for real.

But for the time being, he just fell asleep again, as there wasn’t anything else he could do.

And so, he had another dream.

This time, he was in the middle of the dark. Everything was pitch-black, excepting what seemed to be a spotlight right above him.

That was it. That was the dream. There was a voice calling him from an unknown distance, but it sounded so garbled he couldn’t make out a a single word of what it was saying.

He just kept getting more and more confused, even in dreams.

Luckily, the next time he woke up went better. Everything started with his face wrinkling, followed by a tired groan.

Then the surroundings finally revealed themselves to him, and the first thing he got to see was a round silhouette sitting next to him, and then suddenly gasping.

“You’re awake…!”

He recognized that voice. It was the doctor. He nodded, albeit very weakly.

“No, no, no, don’t exert yourself. It might be still hard to move...” he added, and it was then that he noticed what he had been doing.

The doctor was holding a screwdriver. He seemed to be checking on some screws…

…on his arm.

Then his eyes widened.

_On his arm?_

He tried to move his arms, and before the doctor had to hold him still, he got to confirm that only his left arm responded.

“Child please, don’t make this more difficult.”

“…’m sorry…” he babbled.

It was missing. His right arm was missing. Or rather, gone. And some kind of metallic replacement was being installed. That was what he was doing. It was so strange. He couldn’t feel a thing.

“Doctor… Doctor…? Do you… know what… ngh… I… where even…”

“It’s not my duty to explain things to you, I’m sorry. I’m sure the king would rather do it himself. Besides, you’re not in the best condition yet.” he answered, and continued with his screwdriver mission.

This seemed to be a very patient man. A man who had worked for a very long time, and had gone through probably too much.

The boy squinted. Since he was still getting used to the whole thing of not being quite dead, it took him some minutes to realize that this wasn’t a hospital.

And if it was, it was some horrible hospital. There were unnerving instruments and machines all over the place, not to mention all those jars… with freaky things inside…

He himself was lying on a rather ominous operating table. It had restraints. And two of them were in fact tied around his feet.

“What… happened…?” he muttered, his lucidity returning little by little.

The doctor sighed, and decided to tell him at least that.

“You had an accident and almost died. We saved you.”

“An accident…”

“It will be alright, I’m almost done. We’ll let you walk again soon…”

“But… where’s…”

“Please, just keep resting for now. If you keep wondering so many things you’ll get a headache, believe me.”

Oh, he knew. He knew about the headaches. Maybe it was better to listen.

For a moment, it looked like he was going to reluctantly close his eyes again, but a sudden noise interrupted the reluctance.

The noise of someone practically kicking the door of the room open.

“Doctor! Doctor! DOCTOR! Where is he? Where’s the boy!?”

And now this. It was so awfully loud it made his head buzz. The doctor turned, with a visibly frustrated expression.

“Mister Fassad, we already talked about this, you can’t shout like that in here. It stresses the chimeras.”

“Well, maybe if we had _any_ news I wouldn’t be shouting! What even has been going on that you’ve been taking so long?”

“It is a delicate process, human beings are not as resistant… wait, we already talked about this too.”

“Who’s that?” asked the boy, trying to raise his head to get a better view.

“Oh! Ooohoho, there he is!”

“Careful…”

The incoming person approached quickly. It was a… rather funny looking man. His funny voice certainly matched with his funny appearance. Even though he sounded somewhat aggressive at the same time. It was strange.

He had the feeling that this would be his life from now on. Stranger and stranger.

The funny looking man was twirling his also funny looking mustache…

But wait, he had a name, didn’t he? He had just heard it. The doctor had called him Mister Fassad, so…

Mister Fassad was twirling his still funny looking mustache, the way an evident villain would do. Yet, he spoke to him in a surprisingly nice manner.

“Commander! I’m so glad to see you back with us!”

The boy raised an eyebrow, and then glanced at the doctor. But the doctor had decided to focus on the screws again, and forgive the loud one’s ineptitude again.

“Commander?”

“Yes! Commander! His Highness has been waiting so eagerly... Come on! Get dressed! Let’s not waste more time!”

“But he still needs proper testing!” interrupted the doctor, having to put the screwdriver down as the boy sat up and received a bundle of clothes from Mister Fassad.

“You should have thought about that before goofing around so much, doctor! At least can he move his arm?”

“Well… yes, I finished assembling it just now, but…”

“Good enough!”

Meanwhile, the boy was checking his new arm, and how he could indeed move it. He tried to give the doctor a mechanical thumb up, and succeeded.

“Does it hurt? When you move it?” he asked, with concern, as the little cyborg rushed to put the shirt and pants on.

Or at least just the shirt, since he had to wait to get his feet untied for the pants.

“No, it doesn’t” he replied, as the doctor provided said untying “I just don’t… feel it at all, it’s like it’s numb.”

“Of course you couldn’t, but that’s normal. As I said, there’s still some testing to do…”

“That will have to be done later! Are you ready, Commander?” intervened Mister Fassad, and the cyborg boy jumped down the table.

“Yes, I am!”

“Alright! Because we’ll have to walk a lot to get there!”

“Don’t worry, I think I can.”

“Are you sure? Because if anything goes wrong you can always call and let me know, I’ll be here… but are you really sure?” asked the doctor, who still seemed to be very concerned.

“It will be okay! I just want to see that… king, right? That’s what you said.”

“His Highness would be better but that counts too.”

“Yeah, however he likes… just let’s go, lead the way!”

And so, despite his disgruntlement, the doctor had to wave goodbye as Mister Fassad exited the room with an oblivious little cyborg boy. He knew he would see him again anyway, but he also knew what that would mean. And it wasn’t comforting at all.

There was an impending war just around the corner.


	4. Warm Welcomes And New Best Friends

They would have to walk a lot to get there. That was what Mister Fassad had said. That they would have to walk a lot to get there, wherever this ‘king’ was.

And the boy still couldn’t understand how leaving the hospital-but-perhaps-not building and giving just like two steps forward to then stop was walking a lot.

“Now we have to wait for the transport” instructed the man, frowning “They should be here already but I guess everyone’s being lazy today. Just look at this wasteland! Hopefully they will start working on renovations soon…”

“I guess… uh… Mister Fassad… it’s Mister Fassad, right?”

“Hmm?”

“You called me ‘Commander’… What does that mean? And who’s that king and why does he want to see me so badly?”

Mister Fassad raised a finger, and promptly placed it on the boy’s mouth.

“One thing at a time, Commander, one thing at a time!”

The boy just moved the finger aside with a little pout.

“I mean, if you’re going to keep calling me that, at least you could tell me why… What even is that? A title? It kind of sounds like a title…”

“Let’s just say it’s something like a leader.”

The boy paused for a moment, as if taking it in, and then suddenly smirked.

“Leader, huh? I like that…”

A breezy silence followed.

He sat down.

“But…”

“But…?”

“Is my… Is my family okay with this?”

More silence.

It didn’t look like Mister Fassad wanted to talk about that either. The boy was starting to think there was some serious issue he shouldn’t know about.

But he wanted to know.

“I mean, do they even know about the acc-”

“Which family?”

Even more silence.

He groaned faintly, scratching his head.

“You know, my… mom, and my dad… and…”

But now he was wondering that himself.

_Which family?_

He couldn’t remember a single thing about them. He was just assuming he had one, but that was all. He squinted, trying to recollect something, anything…

“You were all alone when we found you.”

But to no avail.

He stared at his hand, and then at the mechanical replacement of the other.

“All alone?”

“Oh, you can keep him. We don’t want him. That’s what they said!”

“They? Who?”

“The villagers. They called you a worthless orphan. They said you don’t do anything but cause trouble. Can you believe that? Nobody wanted you!”

“…”

The boy buried his head between his shoulders, hugging his knees.

So that was why the doctor didn’t want to talk too much.

“But don’t let that affect you, Commander. They can’t see your potential, just like how they can’t see how truly doomed they are. It will be their downfall. But we…” Mister Fassad bent down, to put a hand on the boy’s shoulder “We are the favored ones!”

The boy just looked at him, not knowing what to say.

“This is why the king wants you. He cares about you! He knows what it’s like, to be hated by everyone! But no more…”

Then they stood up, after spotting a descending vehicle that was about to land before them, while raising a lot of wind in the process.

It was a helicopter. Mister Fassad was rather unimpressed, but the boy had never seen such thing before. His jaw nearly dropped as they got in and it slowly started to fly away.

“This thing is such an outdated piece of junk! When are the ships going to be ready? Do you know?”

“I’m afraid not, sir.”

The boy was too distracted by what he could see through the window, but he eventually noticed that the person piloting this wondrous helicopter was wearing a peculiar pink uniform and a mask that looked like a pig’s face.

Like… some kind of pig suit.

Right when he thought he wouldn’t see any more strange things.

“So, is that the one? The chosen one you talked about?”

“It sure is!”

The pig person turned a bit to look at the boy.

“Pleased to meet you, chosen one. What’s your name?”

“Commander! From now on, he’s your Commander!”

“Is that so? Nice! I’ve always wanted to work with a chosen one!”

The boy was about to open his mouth to say that he had a name… but the truth was that, even if he did, he couldn’t remember it either. No one had called him by his name so far, so he didn’t think anyone knew it. That was going to be a problem. There was something overwhelming about being called Commander all the time. It sounded like such an important position in which he would have a lot of responsibility, and he was still feeling so lost that he would most likely have a hard time getting used to it.

He sighed. The real deal hadn’t even started yet and he was already tired.

“Alright, we’re almost there!”

He looked back at the window. They were approaching what appeared to be a floating island, in the middle of the clouds.

On this island, there was a colorful town. There were many houses, shops, and even a big square, which seemed to be fenced, as if something was going to be built on there.

However, nothing was as impressive as the tower building that seemed to crown it all. It stood out quite easily by its height and rather dissonant design, that didn’t follow the simplicity of the other buildings.

As the helicopter landed, the boy got a perfect look at the tall, shiny sign that decorated the entrance.

_‘WELCOME TO NEW PORK’_

And so, they got out of their transport and proceeded to traverse the town. On his way, the boy saw even more curious things, such as several pig-shaped ornaments and a bunch of strategically placed loudspeakers that clearly had been playing the same tune since morning. It was a relaxing tune at least.

Some people turned to them, some even waved, and the boy waved back. He was so captivated by the town that he almost didn’t see what was suddenly coming in his direction.

In fact, maybe if it wasn’t for the screaming, he wouldn’t have seen it at all.

“Theodora! Theodora, get back here!”

A pretty big figure was charging towards him, forming a dust cloud with each frantic step. It appeared to be an animal. A very angry animal.

Mister Fassad seemed to be about to push him out of the way with a hand, while getting some kind of device ready with the other, with which he would have taken this animal down, but then…

Then the boy began to emit sparks. Vivid, _otherworldly_ sparks.

His puzzled gaze met the beast’s enraged one.

And then…

“STOP!” he shouted.

And a great ray of light emerged from his hands and hit the beast, making it fall over.

“…!!”

It took him a minute to react.

He kept staring in shock, even when the person who had been screaming arrived. They were wearing one of those bizarre pig suits as well.

“Oh, thank Pork… Thank you! Thank you, thank you!”

And even when he was starting to recover from the impact of what he had just done, another thing made his eyes widen again, and it was the actual appearance of this creature.

At first, he thought it was a bull, or a cow… and it certainly was.

It certaily was a cow, the udder confirmed it right away. But that wasn’t all.

As soon as this other pig person helped her to get back up while seemingly injecting her with something that would allegedly calm her down, the boy realized that this cow, unlike regular cows, had the elongated neck and tail of a snake.

“Holy… cow…” he huffed, running a hand through his hair “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt her…”

“It’s okay, don’t worry! She’s sturdier than it seems!” replied the pig person, and then someone clapped from behind.

It was Mister Fassad, of course.

“Magnificent, Commander. Truly magnificent! This is the potential I was talking about!”

“Commander? So this is the Commander everyone has been mentioning?” asked the pig person.

Nonetheless, the boy was still focused on this strange animal that kept making the strangeness increase. He was staring closely at her and raising a hand rather hesitantly. She looked so fluffy and so scaly at the same time.

“Well… Commander! You seem to like the cattlesnake! I must warn you though, Theodora’s not very friendly… but it’s nothing personal, she’s just grumpy most of the time.”

Theodora snorted, with apparent annoyance. Now that he could look at her properly, he could see that she wasn’t as big as he thought. She was actually quite small, and didn’t even have her horns fully developed. They were merely nubs.

The pig person tried to pat her flank but she turned rapidly and hissed, making them back off.

“S-so… so, Commander… That was pretty cool! It’s… It’s what they call ‘PSI’, right?” they inquired, bobbing up and down excitedly.

“PS… What? You mean that… flashy thing I just did?” the boy squinted, his questioning glance sliding towards Mister Fassad as he approached.

“Exactly! That’s how it’s called. But we have other things to do before getting to that, remember? His Highness is still waiting!” he said.

“Oh! O-oh, I’m sorry!” exclaimed the pig person all of a sudden, while tying a rope around Theodora’s neck to take her away “Sorry for wasting your time, Commander, you can go ahead!”

The boy could still hear her hissing in the distance as they continued their way to the tower.

Now, some things tend to look bigger the further they are, and that was the tower’s case. It was tall, but not really _that_ tall. Just averagely tall.

Mister Fassad entered first, followed by the Commander. Because whether he liked the idea of being called Commander or not, it was something that would inevitably keep happening so it would become like his name. And it’s always more convenient and more polite to refer to a protagonist, or anyone for that matter, with their name.

Anyway, the receptionist tossed over a very attentive ‘good morning’ to then inform that His Highness was still in his bedroom, so they would have to go to the top floor. Mister Fassad nodded and took the Commander to the elevator.

“So… let me get this straight” he said, as they began to go up “There’s a… snake cow out there, I have some weird but cool power and everybody in this place loves pigs.”

“Mmhm! Good! Very good so far! I didn’t expect you to forget that much though…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, about your power. I thought you still would be familiar with it.”

“What, you mean I already could do that since before?”

“Why do you think those villagers cast you aside in the first place, you silly goose?”

“I thought it was just because they didn’t like me…?”

“Don’t get me wrong though, in my opinion that’s a VERY stupid reason to marginalize someone… but as I said, they are in fact very stupid so it’s not really surprising!”

“Uhuh… aaand… how was it called again? PSI?”

“PSI, yes! The best gift you could ever get! The king appreciates it greatly, so that’s why he’s dying to see you!”

“Well, I’m not totally sure of how to… use it so I might have trouble demonstrating, I hope he doesn’t mind…”

“It will be okay, although we will have to part ways from here.”

“Wait, what?”

The elevator stopped. The doors opened. Mister Fassad motioned for the Commander to step out.

And he did. With a bit of insecurity but he did.

“I have some pending business I have to take care of. I will see you later, Commander!” he said, saluting him before going back down.

And so, the brand new Pigmask Commander found himself in a hallway, that fortunately had only one door at the end, so he couldn’t get mistaken.

Loud music was coming from this room. Very loud music. The Commander squinted.

And then knocked.

And then knocked again.

And then knocked a third time with the fury that only a hot-blooded redhead like himself could display.

And then, finally, they turned down the volume. Then he heard footsteps approaching.

Mechanical footsteps.

“WHO DARES TO DISTURB THE KING’S SLUMBER?”

The Commander flinched. That was such a high-pitched mechanical voice.

“Um…” he cleared his throat “Mister Fassad brought me here, he said that the king wanted to see me. I’m… the Commander?”

“COMMANDER?”

“ _MY COMMANDER!_ ”

The Commander jumped. That was another voice.

“Let him in, let him in, LET HIM IN!”

“YES, MASTER.”

The door opened, and the strangeness returned. At this point, it would be better to remark the mundane things instead.

The Commander was greeted by what appeared to be an oversized doll, in a maid dress with adorable pigtails.

“WELCOME, COMMANDER!” she squealed, stepping aside.

The Commander didn’t know where to look at. There were so many things in that room that were catching his attention. Toy trains, toy planes, toy boats, toy cars, toy animals…

Toy everything.

And slides, and swings… there was even a merry-go-round in a corner.

Everything. He had everything.

And he knew it. The Commander could tell by that smug grin on his face, as his eyes finally stopped browsing the enormous room and focused on the throne in which he was sitting.

And as if the throne wasn’t enough to let him know that this kid, this kid who was probably his age or just a little bit older, was the Great and Powerful King, he was also wearing a crown. That didn’t match very well with his baby blue overalls. Yet, considering the t-shirt the Commander himself was wearing, with a _‘I (heart) NP’_ on it, he was no one to judge.

So there he was, in all his glory. His chubby and messy haired glory.

“At last! I’ve been waiting all day!” he exclaimed, jumping down the throne to scoot over towards the newcomer and promptly shake his hand “Nice to meet you. I’m Porky! King of Nowhere Islands!”

“LONG LIVE THE KING!” cheered the maid, while confetti and streamers burst out of the top of her head as if it was a party popper.

“I love when she does that!” laughed Porky “Isn’t Li’l Miss Marshmallow awesome?”

The Commander nodded, sweatdropping. It was then that he decided to stop freaking out and just go along with everything. That was definitely the best thing to do.

“So, hey! You still didn’t say anything… Come on, take a seat! Do you want something to drink? Li’l Miss Marshmallow! Get the drinks ready! We have grown-up drinks if you want…”

Porky gestured towards a pile of multicolored kindergarten chairs. Li’l Miss Marshmallow rushed to get one before the Commander could even notice them and even tried to help him sitting down, making him have to politely handwave her away. So she just returned to her position next to the king, who was already back on his throne.

“Now yes, tell me. Give me all the details. I heard that you were brought back to life after what should have been your death… Is that true?”

The Commander could feel a slight chill going up his metallic spine. There was something about the king’s expression, about that grin of his… that was completely off.

“I think so. That’s what they told me, at least. I can’t remember what happened but I think I fell down a cliff…? I’m not sure though…”

The fact that he couldn’t see his eyes, thanks to that dense fringe, just added to it.

“That’s amazing! Like a miracle. You are a miracle… huh… oh damn, I was so busy introducing myself I didn’t even ask _your_ name! What is it?”

“Well, that’s… that’s one of the things I can’t remember… I mean, I guess it’s ‘Commander’… Right?”

“Pffft! Nah! That’s just a title. It means you’re going to lead my army… well, _our_ army.”

“What even _is_ an army?”

“It’s a bunch of strong people who does everything you say. Everything. No matter what it is. But not just that, they defend you too. They fight evil in your name… and they won’t stop at any obstacle! Not even a storm, not even an earthquake, not even running out of pork chips! That’s how great they are. This army, at least. You can bet they’re the best.”

“Woah…”

“And that’s why I think you could lead them. Like I said, only the strong ones can join the army, and you’re the strongest of us all in this place. Fassad said so, and Fassad knows how to see the strength in others…”

Porky was leaning forward, looking into the Commander’s eyes, as if trying to see that strength himself.

And judging by the way he chuckled, he probably saw something.

The Commander couldn’t help cowering a little, but then took a deep breath and crossed his arms.

“I understand. You want me for my… PSI, don’t you?”

Then the king got out of his throne again to come closer.

“What a shame, though. You don’t know your own name so it’s like you don’t have a name at all!” he said, with a surprisingly genuine concerned tone “That’s not right. We have to fix this. I’m going to give you a new name. The _greatest_ , _most fantastic_ name _ever_. So great you won’t even care about what your first name was anymore!”

“That’s… very kind of you…”

The Commander wasn’t sure of what to think. That didn’t sound very nice to him, but he could tell Porky was just trying to help him. Trying to push his mysterious, forgotten past even further from his reach, perhaps, for it would only make him suffer to remember.

So yes, what better way to do such thing than entirely changing his name, and with that establishing a whole new identity?

“From now on…” continued the king, smiling brightly while putting an arm around his shoulders “…you will be _Ness_.”


	5. Little By Little

Porky used to spend most of the time in his tower building. According to him, New Pork was still in development and therefore ‘still a boring wasteland’. He then showed excitement about an arcade that would open soon, much to the Commander’s confusion as he had never heard of arcades before.

“Gee, Ness, were you born yesterday?” he teased, and the Commander just shrugged with a smile.

“Well, technically yes…”

“Pffft! Very well! Then it will be my duty to educate you.”

There was something specially weird our hero was starting to notice about the alleged king of Nowhere Islands, besides the obvious fact that he was at least twelve years old, which was usually too young for a king. And it was how he could so quickly shift from an energetic child to a somewhat cryptic adult. Who still looked like a child.

It was like he had trouble deciding what he wanted to be.

“Alright, dearies, here’s your order. Enjoy your meal!” announced the waitress, while placing said order on their table, and then turning to Porky “By the way, Your Highness… about that advertising I suggested earlier, I’ve been working on ideas for flyers and…”

“Can’t you see that I’m with my best friend right now? Shoo!” he snapped, giving her a little bag of money, as if that would make her leave faster.

“Y-yes… sorry, Your Highness, I didn’t mean to be rude…” she replied, and effectively left.

Porky just shook his head and then looked back at his stew, and then back at the Commander.

“That’s Delilah. She runs _Beauty & Tasty_, all by herself. She’s both the cook and the waitress and let me tell you… if it wasn’t for me, she would totally go out of business. If anything, this restaurant doesn’t need more customers, it needs more employees! And not slowpokes like Delilah… They have to be faster! More efficient! And more importantly, they should _always_ remember _every single one_ of my favorite foods! You know what I mean?”

 But the Commander didn’t answer. He seemed to be staring absently at his plate.

“What? Don’t you like steak? Well, TOO BAD! AHAHAHAHAH! Ahahah… Oh come on, I’m just kidding!”

The Commander sighed, finally proceeding to cut a bit of the steak.

“Porky… uh, I mean, Your Highness…”

“It’s okay, you can just call me Porky. We’re best friends.”

“Yeah… okay… Anyway, can I ask you something?”

“Hmm?”

“Are… those villagers really that bad?”

Silence.

Porky was chewing.

The Commander was gingerly tasting the steak, while looking away.

“Yes. Yes, they are.” replied Porky… still chewing.

“Is that why you and your people live up here and not down there?”

“Absolutely. And because it’s cool.”

“Have you talked to them? Were they mean to you?”

Then Porky sighed and put down his spoon.

“There’s something important you have to know, Ness. Calling people ‘bad’ is not okay. You can’t just go around thinking someone is bad just because they don’t agree with you on one thing or the other, no… It’s not being bad. It’s being stupid. These persons are just stupid. They grew up in barns. They don’t even know how money works. Stupid. Utterly stupid.”

“But… I don’t know how… money works either, I don’t even know what money is. There are a lot of things I don’t know. Are you saying I am stupid too?”

The Commander couldn’t help frowning slightly.

“That depends. Are you willing to learn?” inquired Porky, taking another sip from the stew.

“Well… Sure! Then I would prove that I’m not stupid.” he smirked, with that expression someone who proudly won an argument would make.

The king smirked back.

“See, that’s what I like about you. You’re not afraid of the unknown.”

“I’m not afraid of anything. I literally cheated death.”

“You know this is just progress. Progress can be scary sometimes, but in the end it’s always better to move forward. If only those stupid villagers were like you… then I’m sure we could make these sad islands a better place for everyone.”

“These things take time, Porky, you can’t just expect to get everything done in one day.”

“Tell me about it. It’s been a week and these slackers haven’t even started building my statue yet. A WEEK.”

The Commander sweatdropped. The villagers weren’t the only ones who still had a lot to learn.

“I’m sure you can do it, little by little… I can help you if you want, I mean… that’s why I’m here after all, right?”

“Yes, Ness… that’s why…”

Porky was looking strangely moved. He reached out and put a hand on the Commander’s shoulder.

“That’s why I want you to stay here. The future of these islands depends on you, and you already almost died down there. We can’t let that happen again, do you understand?”

“But that was an accident, I’m sure I could just…”

“No. You couldn’t. You won’t go back there. Not until you’re strong enough, at least.”

“Pshhh, Porky, are you even listening to yourself right now?”

“I’m being _serious_ , Commander. You will not leave New Pork. _It’s an order_.”

Then the Commander flinched, as he felt something… _sparking_ in his brain.

“ _Understood, Master._ ”

Porky observed his sudden blank stare, and then chuckled with satisfaction after his new toy just held his head for a moment and then continued eating as if nothing happened.

He just embraced this update on his programming and stopped objecting.

Just like Doctor Andonuts said he would do.

This would have been easier if his entire brain was a machine and not just a part of it, but the king was okay with that anyway. It would give him something fun to do while waiting for his islands to stop being boring.

“Do you want to go to the zoo?” he asked, rather casually, once the Commander finished his steak.

“Zoo?”

“Yeah, where we keep the chimeras. You’re going to love it.”

“Chimeras…?”

The Commander had already encountered one of them. The one that had made him recall his powers. And that was, without a doubt, the only one he had seen so far.

Aside from Theodora’s pen, the ‘zoo’ housed a pond and cages of all sizes. There were a lot of decorative plants too, perhaps to make it look more friendly and less unsettling.

“We still have to improve the enclosures but don’t worry! The cages are big enough for them to move.” explained the Pigmask in charge, who turned out to be the same Pigmask who was chasing after the little cattlesnake during her rampage “It’s good to see you again, Your Highness!”

“It’s good to see you again too!” replied the Commander, recognizing their voice right away.

“There’s _nothing_ to improve if they’re already big enough for them to move though.” grunted Porky “You’re going to waste time you could spend making more cool stuff! Where’s the horsantula?”

“O-over there, sir! We had to move it from the pen, it wasn’t getting along with the cattlesnake…”

“How is she, by the way?” asked the Commander, glancing at the pen.

Theodora was standing in a corner, rubbing her face against a giant spinning brush. She looked shockingly relaxed.

“Well, better than earlier for sure. It was a good idea to put that… thing there, huh?”

“Ness! Come to see the horsantula!”

“I think he’s calling you, Commander.”

“Ah, yes… Coming!”

Would the Commander ever get used to that new name? He still was struggling to adjust to the Commander title, so he doubted it. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to tell Porky to stop calling him that, he had the feeling that something bad… no, something _terrible_ would happen if he even considered contradicting him. Maybe because everyone was so disturbingly compliant towards him.

Porky was grinning again, almost pressing his face against the bars of the chimera’s cage. The Commander found it rather quickly thanks to all the noise it was making. It was an interesting noise for sure. Even after a good couple of a minutes looking at it, he still couldn’t figure out where those screechy neighs were coming from. At first he thought it was the creature’s more visible horse head, but then he spotted the spider’s face underneath. And both of them had their mouths open and dripping something that he supposed was venom, or perhaps just drool, or perhaps just venomous drool. Again, it was so hard to tell.

The horsantula was running in circles, in an awfully frightened manner, as if it had just woken up from a nightmare. The excessive number of legs, to which it didn’t seem to be used to, eventually made it trip and fall, to Porky’s amusement.

“These guys are great, but they still need more tweaking.” he said, after having a refreshing chuckle.

“There’s more of them?” inquired the Commander, trying to see if all of the horsantula’s legs were okay.

“Not yet but there will be! Wouldn’t that be awesome? Oh hey, speaking of awesome… you have to come and see this too!”

And before he could even turn to look back at him, the bratty king was already gone. He was pretty swift for such a chubby kid.

The Commander followed him rather slowly since the place wasn’t big enough for him to get lost anyway. This time, Porky stopped in front of an enclosure that had just not one but several chimeras. These ones looked like snakes with chicken heads, and appeared to be fighting each other, delivering pecks and tail whippings here and there.

Upon closer inspection, the Commander realized that the source of the turmoil was a packet of eggs in the middle of the cage.

“Slitherhens are very iffy! Some want to keep eggs warm and some want to eat them, so there’s always trouble when we put so many together!” explained Porky, with yet another chuckle “I think we could make a sport out of this. We could place bets, it would be fun… Don’t you think?”

“Hmm…”

“Oh, but this is even better!”

And so, Porky ran off again. The Commander sighed and followed him at a patient pace. Again.

The next stop was the pond. The king bent down next to it and whistled. Then something splashed forth, barking happily. A fish with a dog’s head, which also had feet that resembled a bird’s.

“I love this boy… The others always stay in the water but he always comes! What a good boy, what a good boy!”

Even though the Commander was already accepting every kind of strangeness he would keep coming across, it was still somewhat surreal to see Porky petting that dogfish, and the dogfish desperately trying to wag its fish tail, which clearly wasn’t made for that.

“If all of them were as nice as he is we could make them pets! Wouldn’t you like one?”

He wasn’t sure of what to say. He liked puppies, but when they weren’t forced to break the laws of nature.

“So… Are all animals in New Pork chimeras?”

“Yep! Way cooler than ordinary animals, huh? We’ve been introducing them to the other islands too, and from what I’ve been hearing it’s making a great impact on them!”

The Commander laughed, pretty awkwardly. He wasn’t even going to ask if it was a good impact or a bad impact.

“You can come here whenever you want. Other people has to pay for the zoo but you… you’re a VIP!” added Porky, holding the dogfish and handing it over so he could pet it too.

“Oh, thank you!” he answered, scratching behind its ear “I’m honored to be a VIP… Whatever that means…?”

“It stands for Very Important Pigmask.”

“Oooh! I see now!”

The dogfish whined, resting its head on his hands.

Even though no one could see it, Porky squinted.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh?”

“You look weird…”

“Yeah, I am… it’s nothing… I just like this puppy a lot, I guess…”

“Come on, let’s go do something else.”

“Sure…”

Porky put the dogfish back in the pond and the two walked away, as the Commander wiped off the mysterious tear from his organic eye.

The sun was setting.

“So! What else would you like to do, best friend?”

“Uuuh… I don’t know, how about you keep leading the way?”

“Good idea! I like how you think.”

Porky was heading for the helicopter, that was still parked on the same spot.

“This thing is really old… I should get something better but… I guess I can’t let it go. It’s like… some sentimental value thing, you know?”

The Commander just nodded.

“Are we going to fly?”

“To the training grounds! I have to make sure the army isn’t slacking off… besides, they have to meet their Commander!”

“And you know how to drive this?”

“Of course I do, I have a lot of experience!”

But the truth was that Porky was actually pretty so-so at it. The helicopter staggered a lot, and the Commander had to make a great effort to pretend he wasn’t scared. Yet, they made it to their destination safe and sound, so that was something.

It was just fortunate that these grounds were so relievingly close.

New Pork was in fact a floating archipelago of sorts. The developing metropolis, that was still just a big town, was on the main, biggest island. The rest of the islands, that were rather small, served as the homes of the people who didn’t fit in the main part. They were full of apartment complexes, and people was still moving so they could leave more space in New Pork for Porky’s whims. Such as the zoo. And that arcade. And there were also plans to open a theater, and an amusement park. And any other thing Porky just felt like adding.

The training grounds weren’t just training grounds, but camping grounds as well, so that island wasn’t as small as the others. The soldiers had to get used to the wilderness of the lower lands before descending, so they would spend every day exercising and practicing the life in tents. While living off junk food.

When Porky and his Commander arrived, there seemed to be some big event going on. The lesser Pigmasks had gathered in a circle.

And in the center of that circle there was a spectacular figure.

It was a humongous man with perhaps the only relatively awesome looking pig-shaped mask in the entire army, or at least that’s what the Commander thought. Because, unlike the other masks, this one had a pair of huge horns, that made it look more like a bull-shaped mask.

This guy appeared to be about to fight someone else.

“Would you look at that! We came just in time for something fun!” exclaimed Porky, clapping in excitement.

“Alright!” bellowed the man “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” replied his opponent, softly.

And it was then that the Commander looked at it, and realized that it was a girl.

A girl who was definitely as young as Porky, and himself. She had short, puffy hair, and she was wearing a pink business suit. She looked adorable.

But what kind of unbalanced fight was this going to be?

“Shoot!”

“ _PK Beam!_ ”

A glowing orb came out of the girl’s hands as she stretched her arms out, and then grew until turning into some sort of blinding comet that would have wrecked him if he hadn’t dodged it with an astounding agility, which was rather unexpected from his heavy build. The Pigmasks cheered.

And then… the fight just stopped there.

“And this is how you evade psychic attacks!” announced the horned superior, turning back to the crowd.

Most of them seemed to be taking notes.

“Remember! They will abuse this advantage against us! But we have something they don’t… GUTS!”

“YEAAAAH!!”

Then everyone started clapping.

“Now go! Make yourselves proud!”

“Yes, sir!”

The Pigmasks saluted the horned one and immediately fell out.

“Thanks for your help, Miss Marie.” he said, to the girl that was still there.

“No problem.” she replied, again softly. It seemed to be her standard tone.

“Well, well, well! What a great demonstration, Trooper!” praised Porky, approaching with the Commander.

“Master Porky, sir!” exclaimed the man, standing upright and saluting “Excuse me, I was so concentrated that I didn’t see you come… Good evening, sir!”

“Greetings, Master Porky.” added the girl, with a little nod.

“I take it you already got some updates about what we’re facing, hmm?” continued the king, grinning as he put an arm around the Commander’s shoulders to bring him closer “But did they tell you about _this_?”

The Commander decided to do what he regarded as the most suitable thing and saluted.

It was naturally impossible to tell because of the mask, but the giant was raising an eyebrow anyway. Then he leaned forward, as if wanting to get a closer look at this newcomer, and sniffed.

Quite loudly.

“It’s… some lost kid?” he inquired, sounding evidently unimpressed.

“Nope! Damn it, Trooper, I thought you were better at this! I’m giving you two more guesses!” snickered Porky.

“It’s the chosen one…” said the girl, all of a sudden.

And then Porky finally turned to her.

“You’re always in the know, aren’t you?” his grin widened… with a hint of scorn, before he looked back at the Commander “But yes, our Commander here is a gifted one. He has those amazing psychic powers!”

“Wait, what? Commander? This kid? Seriously?”

“Now, introductions! Before I forget again… Commander, this is the Fierce Pork Trooper, member of the army. A very high-ranking member of the army, although not really that high but still cool. And that’s Marie, my secretary.”

His secretary? Hadn’t he said that his secretary was the one whose only purpose was to do all the boring paperwork? Judging by what he had just seen her do, the Commander would have questioned that. But he just nodded.

“Nice to meet you.” he said, with a polite smile.

Meanwhile, the Pork Trooper was still scratching his head.

“Is that true? Does he have those psychic powers too? Well, then what the hell are we waiting for?” and then he lowered his hand, to clench it into a passionate fist “I wanna see! Show me what you’re made of, Commander!”

“I don’t think that could be possible right now, Mister Trooper.” interrupted the secretary, observing the Commander “He appears to be terribly underleveled. You could kill him.”

“What? What do you mean underleveled?” asked the Commander, already frowning “You haven’t even tested me yet!”

“She’s just taunting you! That’s what crybabies like her do to feel better about themselves…” said Porky, grinning in that scornful manner again.

“Well, that’s a shame! Then you should start training as soon as possible, sir. We can’t have an underleveled Commander!” concluded the Pork Trooper, crossing his arms.

“In fact, that sounds downright nonsensical considering the experience Commanders are supposed to have. You can’t just give someone the highest rank for having potential, Master Porky. It must be developed.” added Marie.

“Then fight me! Right now!” snapped the Commander, before his pride got even more torn to shreds.

Marie just stared at him in the sharpest manner.

“Come on, Trooper! Fight me!” he insisted, scooting over towards him.

“Yeah! Show them!” cheered Porky, and the Pork Trooper had no choice but to accept, as his king was really eager to see this.

Maybe he could just try to punch the boy gently. Maybe…

“Alright, sir…” he sighed, stepping away to keep a more proper distance “I’ll let you throw the first move. Go ahead. Lay it on me!”

The Commander nodded, and took a defensive stance.

He tried to focus… and something seemed to flash before him.

Something brief, but clear.

An image. Or perhaps a feeling. Or both at once.

Suddenly, his eyes were wide open.

“ _PK… PK Love!_ ”

And so, the great ray of light returned, so quickly that the Pork Trooper didn’t get to dodge it and got thrown back by it instead.

Yet, he was obviously tougher than that, and got back up right away to then charge towards the boy and try to punch him as gently as he could.

Nonetheless, he failed. The Commander was the one who fell over this time. And the slight inconvenience that his attack had caused to his unluckily brutal adversary was absolutely nothing compared to the way he literally ate dirt.

Porky was placing his hands on his face with a gaping mouth, while Marie just sighed quietly with a hand on her forehead.

“Commander! Oh my Pork… Commander! Are you okay?” exclaimed the Pork Trooper, rushing to pick him up “I apologize! I didn’t want to hit you that hard!”

The Commander looked up at him, and grunted.

“So you…” he had to pause to cough up some dirt “So you were going to suck on purpose to let me win or something like that? Ha… haha… That’s so dumb!”

And now he was laughing pathetically.

“Well, you’re still pretty good! I definitely can see that potential of yours!” affirmed the Pork Trooper, proceeding to put him down once he realized that he wasn’t as deadly injured as he thought “Besides, you’ve got guts too… and that’s very important!”

“Yeah, you just have to keep trying hard!” encouraged Porky, patting his back.

But Marie was thinking about something else.

“PK Love…?” she muttered, squinting.

“Oh, yeah! Yeah, I remembered!” beamed the Commander “That’s what it’s called! It just… It just came to me!”

He seemed to be so excited about this revelation that he was grabbing Porky’s arm and jumping up and down.

“I remembered something, Porky! I remembered something!”

But Porky’s smile had disappeared. Instead, he was just looking… vacant.

“That’s… great, Commander! So you’re suffering from memory loss too?”

“I think so… Wait, ‘too’? Is there someone else going through that?”

“I’m not sure, it’s just a rumor. Apparently there was this washed up hobo who couldn’t even remember his own name…?”

“Is that so…?”

“Ness, please!” squealed Porky “Stop doing that! Stop trying to remember! You’ll hurt yourself!”

“I-I know, I know! But I didn’t even try anything this time, I swear… it just happened!”

“Well, then don’t think about it for too long! Just leave it behind!”

“But… But I can’t just… stay like this forever, can I…?”

The Pork Trooper and Marie exchanged uncomfortable looks and stepped back.

Porky was staring intently at the Commander, through his messy fringe. Then he looked down.

“Don’t you like it here?” he grumbled.

“It’s not like that, this is a… neat place, but…”

“Don’t you like _me_?”

“I’m telling you, it’s not like that!”

“Then why do you want to go back to your old life so badly? You _died_! Nobody down there cares about you anymore, they never did to begin with! I… I did everything so you could have a nice resurrection, a good fresh start… and this is how you thank me?”

“Porky… I’m sorry…”

“Nah, nah, nah, you know what? Marie’s right. You’re a weakling. So why don’t you just stay here and train, so I don’t have to look at your ungrateful face for the next hours? Can you do that for me, Trooper?”

The Pork Trooper jerked up.

“Uh… Of course, Your Highness! No problem!” he answered, once again standing upright.

“Good. Wonderful. _Splendid_. MARIE!”

“I’m right here…” announced Marie, with a hand on an ear, as if that had hurt.

“Let’s go, we have things to do.”

“Yes, Master Porky.”

The Commander was just throwing his hands up at the whole thing.

“Oh come on, Porky! You can’t just leave like this!” he objected, wanting to run after him but getting caught by the Pork Trooper’s firm grip.

“Nananananah, I can’t hear you!” he shouted, while walking away with Marie who just decided that there was nothing else to say.

“Leave him be, kid. He’ll get better by himself, believe me. This happens all the time.” reassured the Pork Trooper.

“NANANANANAH, I! CAN’T! HEAR YOU!”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Your Highness!”

“OH. OKAY! BECAUSE I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

The Commander was sweatdropping.

“But he didn’t even… do anything…” he mumbled, while watching the bratty king and his secretary get in the helicopter to then leave for good.

And so, the Pork Trooper let him go.

“Well, I guess you’re spending the night with us then. Don’t worry, we’re not gonna start the hard work till tomorrow. For now we’re gonna roast some marshmallows and listen to the radio. Come on, let’s get you a tent!”

Even despite that upsetting feeling of making Porky ridiculously mad, the Commander smiled and nodded.

“That sounds fun! I can’t wait for the training though!” he chirped, following him.

“It’ll be the best training you’ll ever gonna get! If DCMC can’t make you feel motivated enough to try lifting a boulder, then nothing will!”

“DC… MC?”

“Oh my Pork… You’re telling me you haven’t listened to DCMC yet!? Boy! We _sure_ have a lot of work to do!”


	6. Down To Business

Porky returned to New Pork just in time to run into the person he wanted to see the most. The Mother Porkship was back from the lower lands, and its occupants had already got out of it and were now seemingly discussing something. All of them were lesser Pigmasks, excepting the Major that had been waiting for them at the parking lot.

And he looked angry. Very angry. He was shaking his green fist.

“Something’s not right.” remarked Marie.

The king dashed out of the helicopter and went towards the discussion, almost stomping.

“I can’t get a single break today, can I?” he grunted, as she followed him rather calmly “Major! What the hell’s going on here?”

Everyone turned at the sound of his voice and saluted. Marie saluted back, but Porky was crossing his arms.

“Your Highness! The scouting division is back! And, as you can see, there are good and bad news!” announced the Major.

“Spit it out!”

“The good news is that they made it out alive. The bad news is… THAT THEY DIDN’T GET ANYTHING ELSE RIGHT!”

“We’re sorry! We’re very sorry!” whimpered the Pigmasks, profusely.

“You lost the Egg, you lost the monkey… EVERYTHING!”

“You lost the EGG!?” hollered Porky “Do you have ANY idea of how IMPORTANT THAT THING IS!?”

“We’re sorry, we’re sorry, we’re sorry!”

“It went missing, not even the villagers know where it is… so that should be at least a little good, right? Nobody wins, but that’s better than them winning… I’m just saying!” added the Major, a bit nervously.

“While that’s relieving to some degree, you still shouldn’t lower your guard. They must be looking for it as we speak.” said Marie, and Porky couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

“You better get your incompetent pig butts back there and start searching! We can’t let them find it first!” he ordered.

“But… But we just came back!”

“You already heard him, you good-for-nothings! Get back in the ship!”

“Wait! Where’s Fassad?”

“Oh, right… Still in the ship. ‘Severely injured’. Although, just between us, I think he’s just being overdramatic. You see, we got attacked by a Drago on the way back…”

Porky stopped paying attention halfway since he had spotted that person he wanted to see the most, getting out of the ship.

“Doctor Andonuts!” he called, thus ruining his attempt of passing unnoticed.

“Your Highness!” replied the doctor, having to stop.

He hated having to call him that, but he knew better than anyone else that he had no choice.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, I told Mister Fassad that your Commander wasn’t precisely complete. I came to see how he’s doing… besides, we’re running out of supplies in the Murasaki Forest facility.”

“What… Really? REALLY? _WELL!_ That explains a lot!”

“W-what do you mean? Did something bad happen?”

“Not just ‘something bad’, something terrible!”

But instead of explaining further, Porky just fell silent. As if he had suddenly realized that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to keep having this kind of conversation in the open. He didn’t know why, but he couldn’t help feeling irrationally paranoid.

He glanced at the Major. He seemed to be talking with Marie. Maybe still about how the scouting division had failed miserably…

And then he fixed his eyes and realized that Fassad was with them. Looking pretty unharmed, just like the Major said, excepting for an ice bag he was holding on his head.

“Give me a minute, doctor, I need to solve that other problem over there first…” he said, going back towards them.

“How many did you sell so far?”

“Three of them… and without that stupid monkey that might be all!”

“Don’t say that, Mister Fassad, I’m sure your speech did something too. And anyway, there must be another efficient way of advertising.”

“What’s the matter?” asked Porky, even though he could tell from what he had just heard.

“We need an alternative plan for the Happy Box distribution.” informed Marie.

“Oh, we don’t need any alternative plan! We know that it’s thanks to Fassad that those three got sold! If there’s trouble delivering them, then the scouting division can do that to atone for their failure!”

“It’s not just that, Master Porky.” continued the secretary “We were taking advantage of that animal’s cuteness to appeal to our targets. And believe it or not, that helped a lot.”

“They can do the delivery work, though, that’s a very good idea, Your Highness.” admitted the Major.

“We’ll just get another cute animal. We have tons of cute animals here, and way cooler than a lame monkey. For now, focus on the Egg. The Egg is _really_ important, go back there and find it!” concluded Porky, and the Major saluted.

“Yes, sir! Although we should probably get more Happy Boxes before we leave, just in case!”

“Well, then get to it already! You go with them, Fassad, maybe you can get the new stupid cute animal on the way there.”

“Got it, Your Highness!”

And so, both Fassad and the Major went to get the incompetent group to head for the Happy Box factory, leaving Porky alone so he could keep unfolding his predicament with Doctor Andonuts.

“Now, doctor… Would you like some coffee? Or rather tea? Come on, let’s go to the headquarters. Our lovely Marie will teleport us there so you don’t even have to walk.”

And so, one second later or perhaps two, they found themselves in the tower building.

This was perfectly normal for Doctor Andonuts. He was familiar with psychic abilities…

And Marie was ‘gifted’, just like the Commander. He knew that too.

“So? What is this about?” he asked, stirring his tea as composedly as he could.

“He remembered something. It wasn’t too important though, but… but he remembered something, and that was not supposed to happen in the first place.”

Porky was stirring hot chocolate with pig-shaped marshmallows.

“Well… that must be the organic part of his brain acting up. As I told you before, one does not simply replace an entire brain with machinery. Especially a human brain. It would be too risky.”

“I know, I know, but… Can’t we just make him stop doing that? It’s getting on my nerves.”

“What about the obedience patch? Isn’t it working?”

“…”

Porky pouted.

“It is working, but I already activated it once and you said it was still a little unstable so it was better to not push it… I ordered him to stay here and never leave though, so you can’t tell me I wasted it.”

“Hmm…” Doctor Andonuts was rubbing his chin “Either way, it is still inevitable. He will always be curious about his past life. Even if it was as… bad as everyone wants him to think. Hiding things from others so rigorously is never a good sign.”

“Maybe if you were nicer to him, he wouldn’t be thinking about that so much.” suggested Marie, nonchalantly.

She was stirring tea too.

“I _AM_ BEING NICE!” he squealed, slamming a fist on the table “I sent him new clothes… I took him out for lunch, I took him to the zoo! And more importantly, I gave him an awesome new name! And not just _any_ awesome name, the MOST AWESOME NAME OF THEM ALL! What did I do to deserve this…”

Marie just blinked, once again nonchalantly.

“But was he comfortable with all of that?” she inquired.

“To be fair, it must be hard to adjust to a new environment, especially if you are suffering from some kind of amnesia.” said Doctor Andonuts.

“Oh, SHUT UP! Now you’re just trying to wind me up!”

“We are just trying to explain that this is not a matter of malfunction, Your Highness. You just have to keep in mind that you are dealing with a chimera, and you should know how difficult they are to tame by now. They are stitched shreds. It’s part of their chaotic nature…”

“Not to mention that he was already quite… ‘difficult to tame’ since before the reconstruction.” added Marie, taking a sip of her cup.

“Is that so?”

“Apparently some soldiers got to witness his confrontation with the Drago and pointed out that he was a feisty one. Or, as I would rather say, a foolish one. And you still think he should lead an army.”

“He will do a _great job_ and you will _like it_.” growled Porky, refraining himself from punching the table again “I believe in him!”

She just stared at him, still looking impassible.

“As long as he learns to be more calculating, and less emotional. You don’t win a war with emotions, Master Porky.”

And then, Porky grinned.

“Oh, are you _sure_ of that?”

“…”

She scowled and looked away.

“Excuse me, but…” intervened Doctor Andonuts “What is this war even against?”

“Now, now, there is no war here.” replied Porky, leaning back on his chair and folding his arms behind his neck “What I’m doing is getting prepared, just in case things go wrong, but I know these hooligans can and will understand what’s best for them, sooner or later. It’s just about adjustment, like you said!”

The scientist’s face wrinkled in unease. Yet, fortunately, Porky didn’t notice, or just didn’t care.

“Marie just sees war everywhere.” he continued “She thinks the world is a hopeless place. Isn’t that sad?”

“It is very sad…” sighed Doctor Andonuts.

“But it’s okay, we will show her how beautiful it can become, with the Commander… Let’s toast him!”

Then the three of them raised their cups, even though Porky seemed to be the only one who was really into it.

“Here’s to the Pigmask Commander! May he bring us victory and all that stuff!”

 

And, hopefully, the Commander would meet those expectations.

Although not in that moment, since he was still sleeping, and once again having that dream.

The dream of the pitch-black darkness, and the spotlight right above him. As if it wanted to guide him, somehow.

He tried walking but, unlike what he assumed, the light didn’t follow him. Alarmed, he went back to it.

And this time he could hear something clearly.

It was someone crying.

And whoever it was, they weren’t too far from him…

Yet, for some reason, he couldn’t step out of the light. He just didn’t want to.

And then everything vanished again.

The Commander was awakened by a sudden blaring of trumpets. He jumped out of his sleeping bag and got up right away. Next to said sleeping bag, there was a folded uniform. It looked exactly like the other ones, minus the mask. Which was great, because he didn’t really want to wear one of those. He could only wonder where they had got one his size, considering how big Pigmasks usually were. Maybe it was custom-made.

Anyway, he put it on and rushed to reunite with the rest of the army.

They were actually pretty laid-back for an army. They just performed a little ceremony in which they hoisted a flag with Porky’s face on it and said ‘good morning’ to each other. Then they went straight for breakfast.

“Attention! Let the Commander get his food first!” demanded the Pork Trooper.

Said food was bacon and eggs. The Commander had never tasted bacon before, but he liked eggs. So at least that made the dish inviting. Although it didn’t really matter that much since he was so hungry he would have eaten anything.

“Good to see the uniform fitted, Commander!” commented one of the soldiers.

“You could say the washing machine incident ended up helping, huh?” said another, to then get nudged for saying that.

“We’re not going to run today, are we? I hate running!”

“But that’s the most important part! How are you going to flee properly if you don’t know how to run?”

“Yeah, what he said!”

“I would rather learn to run before learning to use guns…”

“Aaw, I like guns…”

The Commander just kept eating in silence.

Until he ran out of food. Then he started asking questions again.

“So, Trooper… do you think Porky’s still mad at me?”

The Pork Trooper was keeping a check on a series of push-ups the boy had to do. Which he seemed to be doing rather effortlessly. In fact, it looked like he was having fun.

“Nah, I’m sure he forgot about it already. The king’s just like that, he’s always having tantrums. I guess his parents must have spoiled him rotten.”

“Yeah, probs… speaking of that, where are they even…? I mean… I mean, is it common around here to have a ten-or-maybe-twelve-year-old king?”

“I don’t know. Nobody does. He just… came one day.”

“You mean he just… came and took this land for himself?”

The Pork Trooper shrugged.

“Well, no one else claimed it and we had nowhere to live in so…”

“That’s weird… I mean it’s cool, but also weird. But mostly cool.”

“We all came from some nasty places, but he brought us here and let us have a fresh start. He is kind of a brat, yeah, but everything we asked for, he gave it to us. He took care of us and he still does, that’s why we respect him so much. We owe him a lot.”

The Commander had to stop in the middle of a push-up to think about this.

It made sense. In some way.

Maybe Porky hadn’t always been like that. Maybe he was just starting to take his position too seriously and the corruption was already kicking in.

Maybe… if he tried hard enough, he could help him to become a better person. Or turn back into the better person he already was, depending on the context.

Maybe…

“Alright, kid, that’s enough. Now get up, we’re gonna run!”

“Oh, come on! I’m still tired from yesterday!” complained the same Pigmask who hated running, but the Commander was already up and stretching his limbs.

“If you keep acting that way, you’ll never go to the lower lands!” replied another.

“Just leave him be, we don’t need someone whose fleeing skills suck.” said yet another.

“ _Which_ fleeing skills?” said not just one but like, three more.

“You’re not going to gain _any_ skills by just arguing all damn day! It’s clearly time for some motivation here!” roared the Pork Trooper, already bringing the boombox.

“You know what we should do?” proposed the Commander, a playful smile lighting up his face “A game of tag.”

Most of them turned, and then looked at each other.

“Tag?”

“Yeah! Like, tag, you’re it! I chase you and if I get to touch you, you lose!”

“Yes, sir, we know what tag… wait, it doesn’t work like that! If you touch someone, then they become the one who chases others!” objected someone, making the rest nod in the background.

“Well, I am the Commander, aren’t I?” the Commander was smirking in a curious manner, that made him look like a mischievous cat “So if I say you lose, you lose!”

Then everyone started groaning.

“That’s not fair, Commander!”

“What? That would make you run less, because I’m sure I could catch all of you in… what, one minute?” snickered the Commander, sticking his tongue out.

“Don’t underestimate us, sir, we’re determined!”

“Yeah! And we have guts!”

“Well, then start running!”

The Pork Trooper set up the boombox and played one of his favorite DCMC songs.

The Commander was indeed fast. Very fast, and agile. It was admirable.

The game actually lasted more than expected. Yet, even when every single Pigmask was too tired to go on, the Commander was still dashing from one place to another. He ended up running in circles, like the overly energetic child he had always been.

“Come on! Is that all you’ve got?” he laughed, while finally stopping to get some water.

“You gotta go easy on them, kid, we’re not as young as you are.” replied the Pork Trooper, handing him over said water.

“You keep calling me ‘kid’, Trooper…”

“Gah, sorry. I guess I can’t help it, I mean, you _are_ a kid.”

“Yeah but… but when you say it like that it’s like I’m just some kid… and I’m _not_ just some kid, am I?”

Even though it was break time, the Pork Trooper decided to keep the music on, since another of his favorite songs was playing. Then he took a dumbbell to entertain himself and sat down on a bench. The Commander approached to sit next to him. As if he was actually waiting for an answer to that last statement.

“I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t think you can be our commander just because of a whim. Even if it’s a whim from our king.”

And he did indeed get that answer. Which naturally made him pout.

“So before… Were you just playing along?”

“Actually? Yeah. You have to _earn_ these kind of things. These soldiers may not meet all the requirements to be perfect soldiers, but they try. And _do they try_. They do their very best every day. They try hard, they work hard, they couldn’t make me any more proud! You came just now so you wouldn’t understand, how far they’ve come… but believe me, it was beautiful to witness.”

The Commander wasn’t exactly sure since the mask was in the way, but perhaps the Pork Trooper was touched. He certainly was clenching his fist around the dumbbell.

“And it’s still beautiful… and too important to me to just push it aside to give some kid special treatment. Because that’s what you still are to me. Do you want to stop being that? Do you want me to call you Commander, and mean it? Huh? _Do you?_ ”

He could feel the sweatdrops coming back, but he didn’t bail out.

“Yes…”

“ _What?_ ”

“Yes!”

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

“ _HELL YES!_ ” the Commander’s eyes were radiating a flame of eagerness “If this is my destiny and I can’t do anything against it then at least I’m going to fulfill it as greatly as I can!”

“Then prove yourself! Try hard! Work hard!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Don’t let those powers of yours go to waste!”

“YES, SIR!”

“NOW! Are you ready to go back there and give it your all!?”

“…Can we wait five more minutes? I’m sorry, I’m liking this song.”

The Pork Trooper laughed and ruffled the Commander’s hair.

“Sure thing!”

Yet, shortly afterwards, he started attempting to produce more of those curious energy bolts, as if in some kind of warm-up or psychic channelling procedure.

“Anyway… Since when can you do that?”

“Uh… I don’t know. Since… always, I think?”

“The king seems to _adore_ that whole thing. He has told us a lot about those miraculous gifted kids. Makes me think he wishes he was one.”

“That girl… She has powers too, doesn’t she?”

“Oh yeah, Marie. She’s like his right-hand man… uh, right-hand woman? She’s by his side most of the time. She advises him and writes his speeches, apparently.”

“And she has powers.”

“Yes, she does. That’s why everyone thinks she’s Porky’s favorite… well, everyone did until now, I guess.”

“Until now? You mean…”

“You really must have something he loves, and not just the powers. I think there’s more than that… but anyway, let’s get back to that training already.”

“Alright…”

And so, the two stood up and went to get the rest of the troop. However, as soon as they reunited with them, something else delayed their plans.

“Sir! Sir, there’s someone here who wants to see you!”

The Commander didn’t expect to see the first person he met again, but there he was.

“Child! Oh, thank God… um… I’m sorry, is this a bad time?”

“Doctor!”

For some reason, it was just relieving to see him again. Maybe it was that somewhat fatherly concern he was still showing, while approaching quickly to make sure everything was fine, that his mechanic arm was still working and he wasn’t hurt or anything.

“The king told me you would be here, but I told him you still couldn’t exert yourself too much!” he sighed, sounding perhaps a little irritated.

“It’s okay, I’m fine! I just wanted to get down to business as soon as possible, that’s all!” he assured, with a broad smile and his hands on his hips.

“Don’t worry, Doctor Andonuts, we just did some basic stuff. Nothing too exhausting.” added the Pork Trooper, putting a hand on his shoulder “And he’s doing great so far, in case His Highness would like to know.”

“Huh? Is that your name, doctor?” inquired the Commander, realizing that he had never asked that before.

“Yes, it is. Well, it’s not literally ‘Doctor’ per se, but… yes, you can call me that.” he replied, and nodded “I’m glad to hear that, and I know the king will be glad to hear it too.”

“Yeah, speaking of that… Is he still mad at me? By any chance?” the Commander tried to hide his interest on the matter by folding his arms and looking away “I don’t care if he is though, I’m just wondering… I bet that he would stay one whole week mad so I wanted to know if I won or not.”

Yet, his act wasn’t convincing enough. It just made the Pork Trooper chuckle as Doctor Andonuts just scratched his head.

“Then you lost. But that’s not why I’m here. There are some unfinished things I still have to tweak and a lot of testing we haven’t done. So, I’m sorry but I will have to borrow him for a while, Mister Trooper.”

“Yes, I understand. You may borrow him, doctor.”

“Aw, man! But we were about to start some serious training!” protested the Commander, getting pats on his shoulder in response.

“Come on, kid, we don’t want you to get hurt. It’ll be alright.” consoled the Pork Trooper “Now show those tests who’s boss and GO!”

The Commander sighed, but promptly turned to salute.

“Yes, sir… I’ll be back!”

Then he followed Doctor Andonuts back to the helicopter. The Pigmasks waved goodbye, one of them even using a handkerchief, and kept doing it even when they were already out of sight.

“Could you do me a favor and check if your arm fits in this?” asked Doctor Andonuts, handing over something… that looked like a big, cylindrical cup, but most likely wasn’t exactly that.

“What is this?” asked, in turn, the Commander, while confirming that it indeed fit.

“A model. I might end up adding more things than I thought…” he replied, and took it back “Thank you…”

“Huh… Okay! You’re the science guy…”

What was that even for? Were they going to turn him in a water dispenser if he wasn’t efficient enough?

The Commander couldn’t help snickering at the thought.

And then he shuddered a little, because he nearly believed it by accident.

After all, everything was possible with Porky.


	7. Porky Did Not Steal The Precious Thing

It was a cloudy morning.

Whether those were natural clouds, the first traces of pollution clouds or a mixture of both, it was rather hard to tell. But it was a cloudy morning for sure.

The king was sitting in the terrace. He didn’t seem to care about the gloomy weather. Perhaps because he was more worried about the Mother Porkship that was supposed to return, with the Egg.

The very important Egg.

Yet, aside from the helicopter, the parking lot was still empty.

Then, suddenly, something flashed from behind. He turned immediately, knowing that it was his secretary teleporting in.

And indeed, it was.

Accompanied by Fassad. And bringing a cup of frozen yogurt. This couldn’t be something good.

“Still nothing. That’s why they haven’t returned. They’re still searching.”

And indeed, it wasn’t.

Porky groaned, running a hand through his fringe.

“It’s just a stupid egg, seriously, just a _godforsaken stupid egg_ , how hard can it be to find something THAT STUPID?”

“Very hard, apparently. The villagers haven’t found it yet either.” added Marie, handing over the frozen yogurt.

“What? Really? Where did it even go? It can’t just… vanish!? That’s even more stupid than the egg itself!” squealed the king, snatching it angrily and then taking a sip. Also angrily.

“Yes, well… Your Highness…” intervened Fassad, but the other two didn’t seem to hear him.

“Perhaps it was removed from the physical world by a higher force, after sensing a disturbance. That’s the only theory I could elaborate.”

“It’s the dumbest theory I’ve ever heard! The only one in this miserable leftover world I could call a… ‘higher force’ isn’t even active right now so no! It’s impossible!”

“Your Highness…!”

“Then your soldiers are either doing a terrible job or actually hiding something from you. Would that theory be more acceptable?”

“I think it would be more acceptable for you to shut your mouth if you’re not going to say anything that helps!”

“YOUR HIGHNESS!”

“WHAT!?”

And then the attention was finally back on Fassad. He was looking a little exasperated, but brushed it off rather quickly with an instant joyous smile.

“I was just going to say that I came up with an idea!”

“Is that so? Why didn’t you speak right away then? Come on, tell us!”

“How about we tell them that the Egg is already in our power so they stop looking for it and we don’t have to worry about them finding it first anymore? And then we just keep looking for it, but subtly… What do you think?”

“…I know I said they’re idiots, but let’s not exaggerate.”

“Well, what’s the worst that could happen anyway? We might need proof to convince them, but we could just make a sufficiently convincing fake egg! After all, I still remember what it looks like…”

Then Porky started tapping his fingers against each other.

“Sufficiently convincing fake egg, huh? Hmm… That sounds… so ridiculous it could actually work…”

“And hopefully they will get even more distracted with the Happy Boxes.” reminded the peddler, making him nod.

“We shouldn’t take something so significant away so soon, though. That’s most likely going to make them consider the possibility of retaliation.” objected Marie, always ready to object.

Upon taking another sip of yogurt, Porky turned to her to sigh and shake his head.

“Marie… Marie, Marie, Marie, you keep using the wrong words. I wouldn’t be taking their precious thing away. I would be putting it in a safer place after showing them how easy it was to steal it where it used to be, and how careful they should have been, and how careful I’m going to be because I know how important it is for them. Because I’m nice. And they would thank me for that.”

She just stood there, having to take a moment to process such reasoning. Then she shrugged.

“If you say so…”

“This is what these hopeless islands need. A caring ruler.” added Fassad, looking theatrically touched.

“Anyway, what a great idea! I can’t come up with anything better so yeah! Let’s do it!” declared the king, with yet another sip.

“Understood, Your Highness! I’ll contact the troops below to let them know…”

“And get someone to start working on that fake egg while you’re at it!”

“Of course! Leave it to me!” assured the peddler, already with the phone against his ear as he gave a thumb up, which Porky mimicked in response with a content grin, as he watched him leave.

Then he finished his yogurt.

It seemed to be the beginning of a busy day.

Marie had decided to take a moment to gaze at the greyish clouds.

Was it going to rain? She hoped so.

“You’ve been pressuring yourself a lot lately…” muttered Porky, from behind “Wouldn’t you like a little break? You know, some quality time…”

She heard him, but didn’t turn.

“I’m fine. It’s not necessary.”

A snicker.

He was shaking his head again.

“Do you really think I don’t notice how much this is bothering you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Master Porky.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to be all cool and unsympathetic with me. I know you.”

She sighed. That was such a hesitant domineering tone. She couldn’t even call it that, it sounded more like it had traces of… actual _endearment_. Which, coming from him, was downright sickening.

“You _hate_ Ness, don’t you? You can’t stand him…”

“That’s a pretty misleading accusation. I merely think he’s incompetent.”

“See? That’s what I mean. You’re not rooting for him, you’re not even giving him the benefit of the doubt, you just assume he’s incompetent. Because you hate him.”

Marie’s expression couldn’t look more impassive.

“Alright, Master Porky. If that makes you happy then yes. I hate him. Greatly.”

Another, louder, snicker and Porky took a few steps forward.

“It’s not fun when you just let me win like that, you know? Well, sometimes it is, but not in this case… because my little Marie is so upset, because she thinks I’ll replace her.”

Marie had stopped looking up to look down instead. Even despite her apparent apathy, one could tell by that simple gesture that she was indeed troubled about something.

“He and I are… way too different to even try establishing a comparison.”

And the king knew that. She had been around for long enough for him to recognize those vague but still visible hints.

“Well, if you’re really that worried about his incompetence why don’t you help training him then? Teach him what you know about PSI and how to handle it properly, all that jazz… and maybe you two could bond too. I would appreciate that.”

Then she seemed to frown slightly.

“Why is it so mandatory for him to develop his powers anyway? Are you seriously going to send a chosen one, someone who could wield _the power of Earth itself_ , after that poor, defenseless people? Is this some kind of twisted fantasy in which they are the evil forces your cherished chosen one is destined to defeat?”

Then Porky folded his arms, with a prominent pout.

“How dare you…” he grunted, a bit shakily “How dare you say those things about me, and my best friend…”

And again, his way of speaking was so awfully believable. Marie could only cringe internally.

And perhaps fear for his stability.

It was just disturbing to see him sad.

“I just want friends… strong friends that will protect me and take care of me, what’s so bad about that?”

She turned. She was still frowning, but now it was a rather concerned frown.

“You don’t want to destroy Nowhere Islands, do you?” she inquired.

And he just slouched, as if wanting to obscure his already invisible gaze even more.

“We don’t have to. If they can learn… we can make them _better_ instead.”

Another sigh, and she turned away again.

“You lied to me. You said you would do it. You said there was no hope…”

Porky had approached enough to put his hands on her shoulders.

Gently.

“You’ve grown up so much, my dear. Already wanting destruction for everyone, that’s so heartwarming… but why would I cut the rope so soon when there’s so much potential around? Think about all the great things we could do with this promising land… Let’s all be friends, okay? Let’s all be friends and have lots of fun… let’s make this the greatest new world…”

She shrunk. She wasn’t sure of what to say.

He was so lonesome. So lonesome that it was just sad to witness. But he was also so deranged. No matter how generous the things he had done for his people might have been, the intent behind them was still selfish. He was just trying to look good. Trying to compensate for the fact that he had dragged so many helpless pawns to this surreal game of his, this childish delirium he had fabricated…

“Be nice to Ness… please, _please_ , be nice to Ness… he’s… my…”

The sudden noise of an abrupt coughing fit interrupted the king’s words and startled Marie, forcing her to look back at him.

“Master Porky…” she muttered, quickly regaining her composure to lean forward and put a hand on his back “You should go back to your room.”

“Can you… Can you teleport me there?” he requested, with a very jarring feebleness.

“Absolutely not, that could harm you even more.” she replied, willing to push him if she had to.

“But my feet hurt… and my legs hurt… everything, everything hurts…”

“Come on, let’s get the chair. It should be here. There’s one for each floor.”

And indeed, there it was. The Hovering Chair was definitely one of the best inventions in the building, next to the Instant Revitalizing Device.

Even though Porky could float towards the elevator and then his room without any problem, Marie kept following him until they got there.

“I TOLD MASTER PORKY HE HAD TO STAY HERE. HE MUST STAY HERE. THE AIR IS DIRTY.” stated Li’l Miss Marshmallow, tucking him in as he lay down “I CAN’T CLEAN THE AIR, MASTER. IT’S TOO HARD. PLEASE. STAY.”

“What…!? Are you saying I can’t go outside anymore? Pshhh… Nonsense! That was… That was just a slip, I can just…”

A pause.

Then a very strange, almost deafening noise was heard, as the king’s figure flashed for a second, displaying a radiating shade of red.

Li’l Miss Marshmallow sparked, and Marie flinched. Porky was the only one who had a positive reaction.

“Aaah yes, I feel better now!” he beamed, jumping out of the bed “Come on, let’s go to the lab! I want to see how Ness is doing! Don’t you think Doctor Andonuts should be already done with those tests and stuff? It’s been a while!”

“MASTER. PLEASE NO. I AM GOING TO CRY!” screeched the maid, falling on her knees.

Marie just sighed defeatedly, and proceeded to follow him out of the room.

“It will be okay, Li’l Miss Marshmallow, I will take care of him…”

“YOU BETTER!”

That wasn’t a worried tone. It was a threatening one. She was such a charming robot.

“Come on, come on, come on… I can’t wait for the three of us to do tons of fun stuff!” he grinned, as the door closed behind them.

 

“PK Love!”

And one enemy fell down.

“PK Looove!”

And another.

“P! K! LOOOOOVE!”

And yet another.

Many anguished groans filled the room rather quickly, as the poor creatures covered their heads, begging for mercy.

“Excellent!” exclaimed Doctor Andonuts, jolting out of his seat as soon as he stopped taking notes to meet such sight “Excellent, child! You can stop now!”

The Commander turned. He was grinning.

“Not bad, huh? I’m really getting into this!” he cheered, jumping about and everything, but the doctor seemed to be very focused on the resulting damage.

“They are not used to this yet… it’s still a little scary for them…” he said, approaching the weakened claymen, that were pretty much lying on the floor.

“Careful, doctor! You stopped me before I could make them faint, they still can get you!”

“Don’t worry, they never attack me. In fact, they never attack anyone unless they’re told to do so.”

He had seen claymen before, he was familiar with them. As the terminology stated, they were little guys made of clay, who were normally used for picking up and carrying things around. They could lift a boulder so it wasn’t actually too astounding to find out how tough they could be in a fight.

Doctor Andonuts bent down to delicately poke all of them, and then just nod.

“Are they okay?” asked the Commander, looking slightly nervous.

“Nothing too serious. But I will have to keep working on them, that’s for sure. The king did ask me to upgrade them for offensive purposes, after all. I don’t think they will ever be able to defeat you, especially if you keep getting stronger… but as long as they can at least put up a fight against you, then I will know that they are ready for that purpose. Thank you, child, you have been very helpful.”

“No problem…” sighed the Commander.

As if being called a ‘kid’ by the Pork Trooper wasn’t bothersome enough. He was aware of the fact that he was just ten years old but, even so, it still wasn’t fair. It felt like they were constantly remarking how young he was and how ridiculous it was that someone would think he could be a Commander.

But after nearly destroying those claymen, he was even more convinced than before.

He _could_ do it.

“I’m not even tired… Isn’t there anything else I can battle?”

“Now, now, it’s always good to take a break. Keep calm, Commander.”

“Oh, come on! What are you, scared? Are you afraid I’ll break everything you love or something?”

“Awesome taunt, Ness!”

Then both of them turned, and saw Porky and Marie coming in.

“Porky…!” muttered the Commander, but only looking surprised for a split second, before rushing to switch to the indifferent expression.

“Did you miss me?” he smirked, with his arms outstretched “What am I saying, of course you did!”

The Commander just stared at him, and blinked.

“I _guess_ I did.”

Marie was raising her eyebrows in the background.

Porky just stood there for a moment, and then put his arms down. Judging by the way he was pouting, he had expected a hug from his best friend, even though they had been apart for actually less than a day.

“Okay, I get it. You’re waiting for me, right? You’re waiting for me to say a lot of things to you, that should make you realize that I’ve been thinking and stuff…” he added.

The Commander just shrugged.

“If you feel like you should then go ahead.” he said.

Marie was now exchanging looks with Doctor Andonuts.

“Well, I’ve been thinking. Seriously. I know you’re upset, and I understand. It wasn’t fair. I should have taken your feelings into consideration. I’m sorry… but it’s okay, I _forgive you_.”

“…”

The Commander was squinting in utter astonishment.

Was Porky even aware of what he had just said? If anything, it just sounded like a compilation of the best apologetic sentences of the year. He didn’t really mean any of that, or he just didn’t know how to express it properly and had all those words possibly written somewhere on his hand.

Not to mention that he had hecked up real bad on that last part.

“It wasn’t your fault.” he continued, getting closer to put a hand on his shoulder “You were just feeling homesick, even though your… ‘real’ family doesn’t care about you, you just couldn’t help it. You can’t help feeling homesick. That’s just so… so typical of you, Ness…”

A pause, and Porky laughed. In a noticeably sad manner. The Commander just kept staring at him, not knowing what to do at this point.

“No more fights, okay? Best friends shouldn’t fight. Whatever you have to say, I will listen and I will try to understand from now on. Is there anything else you need to do, Doctor Andonuts, or can I already take him back?”

“We just finished a last check-up and everything seems to be fine so yes, you can take him back, Your Highness.”

“Good! Let’s go for a fancy dinner!”

The Commander nodded, despite not being sure about for how long the king could keep his word. Yet, he was intrigued enough to follow him. It wasn’t like he had too many options anyway.

Even though he still wanted to keep battling things. He supposed he could get back to that later, if he asked nicely.

“What is that?” asked Marie once he approached, while taking a look at his right arm. The robotic one, that now had what appeared to be a cylindrical cup where his hand should be.

“Oh yeah, this… Sorry, I forgot to turn it off!” he replied, and then turned it back into a hand just by looking at it “It’s a cannon. It fires beams!”

“Is that so? It looks great!” grinned Porky “And it’s wireless too! Perfect!”

“That should compensate your lack of acceptable PSI skills until you do something about it.” said Marie, as unimpressed as usual.

“Oh, I would watch out if I was you! Because I’m becoming more than acceptable!” smirked the Commander, gesturing towards her as if he was about to actually try hitting her, to which she just folded her arms.

“Do you want to show me? Alright. Show me.”

“Yeah! Show us!” encouraged Porky, as Doctor Andonuts just observed in silence.

The Commander frowned and positioned himself.

“P… K… LOVE…!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

The awkward silence would have worked better if they were outside, and there was a breeze going through them, but it was still a pretty decent awkward silence.

It took the Commander a few seconds to react, and look at his hands in clear confusion.

“Wha…!?”

Marie ran a hand through her hair nonchalantly.

“You haven’t replenished your psychic points, have you?” she inquired, in an obviously rhetorical manner.

“I… You… You can run out…? Of that?” he babbled, already turning red.

“One of the most basic principles in the use of PSI. And you didn’t know it. I would rather call that less than acceptable.”

And then she just walked away.

The Commander didn’t even have time to think of a good comeback. He decided to facepalm at his own failure instead.

“Damn it! I was so close! So close of making her shut up!”

“Hey, you tried, and that’s all that matters! Besides, it seriously takes a lot to make her shut up for good. She _always_ has something to say. You need years of practice!” reassured Porky, as they walked away as well.

“See you later, Doctor Andonuts!” added the Commander, before they disappeared through the door, since he just knew he would come back.

Doctor Andonuts waved vaguely and sighed, to then go back to his notes.

“Just… What even is her problem? Are her clothes too tight or what?”

“She takes her job very seriously, that’s all. And she’s kind of a PSI snob too, I guess that’s what happens when you’re terribly good at it.”

“Still, she shouldn’t treat others that way…”

“Yeah, she’s a spoiled brat, I know. I haven’t been disciplining her enough…”

The laboratory where all that recent tweaking and testing had taken place was underground, right beneath Porky’s tower. They just had to take the elevator.

Marie was waiting there.

“Anyway, as I was saying… Let’s have a fancy dinner today! To celebrate that Ness is back with us!” announced Porky, joyfully.

“What are we having?” asked the Commander, trying to conceal his excitement, but to no avail.

“Whatever you’d like, of course! And Marie will have to eat it too, even if she doesn’t like it! How about that?”

“Sounds good!”

Without batting an eyelid, she just followed them as they exited the elevator and entered a new floor.

“Hold on… Porky, look at the windows. It’s not dark yet… Shouldn’t this be breakfast? Or lunch?”

“No, it’s dinner. Only dinners can be fancy.”

“But…”

“Let me give you a piece of advice! If I say so, that’s how it is. That’s pretty much how law works in this world! But! I’m not the only one who says so… You can do that too.”

“What? Really?”

“As long as I don’t have any problem with whatever you want, you can _be_ the law too, Ness. Remember that you’re my Commander! Commanders are very important to enforce the law!”

“Yes… Yes, sir!”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

This was a rather interesting floor. Porky called it the ‘Meal Floor’. It looked like a surreal, labyrinthine supermarket that only had food. It was a bit of a headache to navigate, but if one could find their way to the other side, they would get received by a small restaurant-like section with tables and chairs. Li’l Miss Marshmallow was always in charge of cooking. She even had a special apron and hat for that.

Luckily, Porky knew the place by memory, so they didn’t get lost.

“So? Did you see anything you like?”

“I don’t know… What do you think?”

“Letting me decide again, huh?”

“Well, I mean, you know this… _kingdom_ and everything on it better than me…”

“Say no more! I’m going to introduce you to another very important aspect of our culture.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

“ _Fast food_.”

And so, the Commander was finally enlightened by the miracle that was hamburgers and fries.

And little toys that came with them too. Which turned out to be figurines of Porky himself in many different outfits, doing many different things. And there was at least a billion of them.

“These are collectable. That means, the more you have, the cooler you are.” explained Porky, taking a bite of his bacon burger.

The Commander was having an average one, with just a little bit of cheese, lettuce and tomato. Marie didn’t seem to be very fond of this kind of food, as hers was just bread, meat, and nothing else. She was eating so quietly she could just merge with the background.

“There’s a new one every day.” he continued, taking the figurine out of his box and putting it on the table, as if wanting to show off how great it looked with its small plastic crown, its small plastic slingshot and its small plastic comic book “Today it’s the Smartest, Bravest and Toughest Chubster of All Time!”

The Commander observed it for a moment, rubbing his chin and squinting.

“Then… you would never be cool enough, would you? You would think you’re already the coolest for having them all, but then a new one appears, so you’re back at not being cool enough unless you run to get it, and even then, there will be another one the next day so it will keep happening…”

“That’s the price you have to pay for being cool. What, did you think it was easy? It sure wasn’t for me! But don’t worry, Ness, you’re already cool enough. You will always be.”

A few pats on the Commander’s back followed. They probably would have felt better if Porky’s hand wasn’t so greasy thanks to the bacon, but the Commander didn’t mind. He just pushed it away gently for another reason.

“You’re just saying that because of my cool powers, aren’t you?” he smirked, in a slightly bitter manner.

“What? _Noooooo!_ Of course not! Do you really think PSI is all you need to be cool? Pffft… Come on! It’s not about how much power you have, it’s about _attitude_! You, for example… You’re just ready to battle the bad guys and save everyone and do it in the most awesome way possible because you _know_ you can do it. Right? And that’s all that matters! You’re like a hero! You _can_ be a hero!”

“Well… yeah… What else would you do if you had powers like these?”

Now Porky was smirking.

“You’d be surprised. Some people just _don’t_ want to be heroes. Some people would rather harm others…”

Marie, who had been staring at the floor for a long while, slowly glanced back at them.

The Commander frowned, taking a sip of his Frizzy Soda.

“That sounds terrible…” he mumbled “But there isn’t anyone like that around here, is…”

But he stopped as soon as he noticed how serious the king’s expression was suddenly looking. Which was a rare sight, and therefore more serious than the average seriousness.

“You have to be careful, Ness. You have to be very careful. PSI might have been a gift for humanity, but that doesn’t mean everyone deserves it. And when it’s used for evil, it’s just…” he had to pause to shake his head “Even if I tried, I couldn’t describe the horrors I have seen…”

He was trembling too. At first it was hard to tell, but then it became evident. The Commander believed to be starting to comprehend why he had made such a big deal about his past life.

“Porky…”

“Promise me that you will be careful…”

“Those lower lands are not just full of ‘stupid’ people, are they? There’s something else…”

“ _Promise it._ ”

“Are you even listening to me? See, this is why I can’t trust you! You said you would listen just, maybe, an hour ago and now you’re not listening!”

“You have to be patient with him.”

The Commander turned. He actually had forgotten that Marie was still there. She had finished her food and now she was looking at Porky.

“I just… I just don’t want you to get hurt… you’re our only hope… _my_ only hope…” he babbled, slouching.

“Tell him, Master Porky. Tell him the truth about the danger that surrounds Nowhere Islands. If he’s going to defend them, he has the right to know.” added Marie, softly.

Then the Commander’s eyes widened, but instead of lashing out, he just waited for it.

“Those people… I really thought they were stupid but… they… they are perfectly aware of what they are going to do, they just don’t care, they just want to do it…” continued the king, and the Commander could only think that he was no longer a child, nor an adult, but a raving old man.

Marie sighed.

“They want to destroy the world. With the power of PSI.” she clarified.

“W-what…? _What!?_ ” yelped the Commander, standing up abruptly.

“They only have a few candidates, but they are promising enough. Soon, these islands might turn into ashes.” she continued, rather calmly despite what was being said.

“Can you believe it? PSI, of all things… The very same power that was supposed to save the world, destroying it! Who could even think of such thing and conclude that it’s okay!?” exclaimed Porky, gritting his teeth and clenching a fist.

“That sounds _really_ terrible!” replied the Commander, with a hand on his forehead “But… but _why_!?”

“Because they’re tired. The’re just tired of everything and they will end it all…” whined the king, and Marie just gave a deadpan, hopeless nod.

And suddenly, everything was making so much sense.

Now the Commander was trembling a little, while processing the whole thing. But no, he couldn’t look scared. Not now, that he could understand perfectly what he was doing there.

“So that’s why… That’s why you need me…”

“I’m sorry, Ness, I should have told you everything from the start but… I was afraid, I didn’t want you to get alarmed… besides… besides, you deserve to be happy… that’s all I ask for…”

The Commander was folding his arms.

A part of himself felt bad for not being able to comfort Porky, but that wasn’t how his nature worked. His biggest priority in that moment was to _do something_ , to _protect_.

“I see now… _I see_ …”

But, at the same time, he couldn’t help thinking in that possibility that was making this ordeal even more unsettling than needed.

According to his knowledge, there was only one village down there. And it was both where he had come from and where the dangerous PSI users were being trained to spread chaos.

And Porky had said he was the strongest of them all.

His face could only get increasingly pale the more he thought about it.

But no one noticed, as he quickly returned to his act.

“I’m sorry, Porky. I understand now. This was a touchy subject, so no wonder you couldn’t just… talk about it. But I understand now, and I promise… I promise I will be careful, and I will… save everyone…”

Porky was smiling, in a shaky manner. For once, it looked like he wasn’t sure of what to say, or how to say it, so Marie spoke on his behalf again.

“Thank you, Commander. You have made Master Porky very happy.”


End file.
